Longing For The Food In Egypt

When things get rough and disorienting, the predictability of the past starts looking pretty good. The story of the Exodus, with its powerful imagery of liberation from Egyptian slavery, holds a significant place in African American culture and history. It has been a symbol of hope and resilience, a testament to the enduring spirit of a people who have faced centuries of injustice.

However, as we move forward in the 21st century, it is crucial for African Americans to transcend the idea of returning to the "glory days" of Egyptian slavery and instead focus on the ongoing fight against racism and oppression.

The Exodus narrative resonates deeply with African Americans, Wesley Chapel and The Black Church, because it reflects our own history of bondage and struggle. Like the Israelites, who were enslaved in Egypt for generations, Blacks in America endured centuries of brutal slavery, followed by a long and painful journey toward freedom. The Exodus story offers a powerful metaphor for liberation and serves as a source of strength and inspiration.

However, it is essential to recognize that too much desire to return to the "promised land" or the "glory days" of Egypt can hinder progress. There is not a lot of glory in walking backwards.

While honoring and drawing inspiration from the past is important, we must avoid becoming trapped in nostalgia and memories.

Sometimes we think of the past as being wonderful and forget just how Jacked up some of our past experienced really were.

The reality is that Egypt symbolizes not only oppression but also a longing for a past that was marked by suffering and dehumanization.

Don’t Miss this You were Slaves in Egypt.

Illustration:

A sister named Caraw tell the story that she had recently quit her job because of chronic illness, and within a week, her husband found out his job at GM was going on strike. For months, she had been struggling to get reimbursed for a bill that she had been overcharged on by a significant sum of money. Obviously, that money would have been really helpful with us both out of work. Caraw’s health issues were escalating, and it seemed as if, at every turn, she encountered obstacle after obstacle, trial after trial, pain upon pain.

She found herself beginning to question whether God really is who, God says God is, wondering whether God was really going to provide and come through, as God had for so many others as written in the pages of the Bible.

She began to say in her heart.

Maybe I was allowing sin in my life and therefore God couldn’t hear my prayers. Maybe God had already sent the answer and I just hadn’t recognized it. Maybe my small (in comparison) problems were too petty for God to waste God time on.

Or maybe, like Moses and the Israelites, She had lessons to learn that she couldn’t possibly see while still in the midst of her bondage to work and sicknesses.

Moses had grown up, watching the Israelites and seeing their hard labor in slavery to Egypt. He felt their pain and had compassion for them. So did God:

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So, God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

And so, God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and out of slavery:

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Quite a calling! But Moses was obedient. It took a long time (possibly 20 years), but the Pharaoh of Egypt finally let the Israelites, who had been enslaved by the Egyptians for over 400 years, go.

They set out with Moses, trudging across the desert, dreaming of the freedom that was finally theirs. The freedom they were searching for was not only freedom from slavery, but also freedom to truly worship their God, the God of the Israelites.

Their positive thoughts didn’t last long, though. After only a month and a half of traveling, the Israelites started to complain:

If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.